The Benefits of Flying
by cr8vgrl
Summary: Fred thinks he knows enough about Hermione to play a game with her. The catch? If she loses, she has to fly with him. Flying may turn out to be the one thing that begins their relationship, and keeps them together when one of them is in danger.


**A/N: I own nothing, but this is in honor of those people that have asked me to continue writing more Hermione/Fred. Hope you enjoy!!**

Hermione Granger had been enjoying some peace and quiet when Fred and George Weasley nearly bowled her over. She had been sitting a ways off from the Quidditch pitch, reading Hogwarts: A History yet again when the two pranksters had landed on either side of her, scaring her with their war whoops.

"Hey Granger!" George called, nearly tumbling off his broom due to his wild waving in her direction. Hermione rolled her eyes and decided not to answer him.

"Hey Hermione," said an identical voice by her ear, and for some reason unknown to her, Hermione responded with a smile.

"Hi Fred," she said. She glared at the two boys, currently leaning against their brooms. "What are you two doing here?"

Her severe tone clearly told the twins that she wanted to be left alone, but Fred noticed that her annoyance didn't quite reach her eyes, so he said cheerily, "We wanted to give you some company, of course! No one should be left alone."

"Yeah!" George grinned, straddling his broom and taking off once again, yelling over his shoulder, "It's too beautiful of a day to be left alone!"

Hermione huffed and muttered, "Well I don't mind."

Fred bent down in front of her, his blue eyes serious for once as he said softly, "I think you do."

The comment startled her. Who was Fred, the person that had never seen her as anything but his little brother's friend, to tell her how she felt? Hermione very carefully avoided admitting to herself that he was right. She _did_ miss being with people. She _did_ long for company. However, no one in school saw the qualities she hid beneath her rule-abiding, goody two shoes exterior, not even her own friends.

With a determined glint in her eyes, Hermione leaned forward, her knees sinking into the grass in front of her, and asked, "Are you suddenly the expert on my emotions, Fred Weasley?"

Fred smiled at her and she felt a strange thrill shoot through her at such a smile. He had never smiled at her like that before, and she instantly found herself wishing that he would do it more often. "Not suddenly, no," he told her, flashing her another stomach-fluttering smile. "But I have been watching you for a while, and I think I understand a bit about you."

Hermione's eyes narrowed and before she could even think, she had spit out at him, "Ha! I highly doubt that. Not even my own family knows me that well, and you certainly haven't taken enough time to get to know me." The eyes that had previously narrowed now widened at her outburst. She hadn't expected to say that.

Fred raised an eyebrow, surprised as well, but only said, "Interesting. Well, how about we make a little deal? If I can tell you four deep things about yourself, you-" he paused and thought for a moment. "You have to come flying with me."

Hermione's face paled, but she was a Gryffindor, and Gryffindors never backed down from a challenge. Plus, since it was Fred that was offering to play this little game with her, she'd never hear the end of her cowardice if she refused. "Fine," she said venomously, fully believing that he didn't know what he was getting into "but if I win, you have to leave me alone."

"Great," Fred said, sinking down into the grass so that he was seated next to her. "Shall I start now?" His confidence ruffled Hermione for a moment as she realized that he seemed completely confident in his ability to understand her.

Hermione shoved Hogwarts: A History into her schoolbag and placed her hands in her lap. "Sure," she said loftily.

Fred grinned broadly and began. "You bite your lip when you're nervous or stressed."

Hermione flinched. Not many people noticed that. "Go on," she said.

Fred was not put off by her cool manner and went on. "You sneak out every other night to go visit the house elves in the kitchens."

Hermione actually jumped. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened and closed a few times before a sputtering of indignant squeaks came out. "I-I," she stuttered. "Are you stalking me or something?"

Fred laughed and raised an eyebrow. "Maybe," he said lazily. He sat back to gauge her reaction. Would she be upset, or would she not mind his attention? For the past two years, he had begun noticing Hermione Granger more and more, and today had been the perfect opportunity to not only try to make some headway in their nonexistent relationship, but to also show her that he was serious about her and cared about the little things that few others even noticed.

Hermione could see that she surprised him (frankly, she surprised herself) with the small, calm nod and the, "Go on," prod that she gave him. She amazed herself even more because she realized that she didn't mind if he won now. Flying would be completely worth it if he would just smile at her again.

Fred took only a moment to get back on track with his thoughts and said, "And I know that you hate flying for two reasons."

Hermione's eyes crinkled teasingly. "Are those reasons three and four?" she asked.

Fred nodded, smiling back at her. "The third reason is that you truly hate heights. They scare you to death. I've watched you in the library and I know that you only climb up the ladder to get a book when it's absolutely necessary."

Hermione covered up her surprise by teasing, "You've actually been in the library?"

Fred shot her a glare. "Oh yes," he said dryly, "but I don't go in too often because Madam Pince doesn't have enough books with pictures in them."

Hermione laughed and leaned forward unconsciously. "So what's your last pearl of wisdom?" she asked Fred. "Better make it good, or you lose."

Fred looked right into her eyes as he said very softly, "You hate flying because ever since your first year, you haven't been very good at it, and you strive to be great in everything you do. Flying scares you because it doesn't come naturally."

Hermione's mouth dropped open and she stared at Fred with unbelieving, unblinking eyes. No one had ever seen so far into her emotions before, and it unnerved her. However, with the unnerving unease she felt, Hermione Granger felt a small part of her heart opening up in a way it had never opened before.

Fred saw it and he pressed his hands to her cheeks softly. "You have so much love inside you," he said softly, naming yet another trait simply because he knew it. "Everyone thinks that you're cold and emotionless, but you're not. Hermione, you have so much to give as long as someone's willing to receive."

Hermione blinked and whispered her next words so softly that Fred barely heard them. "Are you?"

It was his turn to blink. "Willing to receive?" She nodded, her eyes no longer focusing on his face. "Yes," he said softly, causing her gaze to snap back to his. "As long as you let me give you some in return."

Hermione swallowed and pulled away, and Fred let her go. "You won," she said flatly, but her tone did not convey hostility, which Fred was thankful for.

"So I did!" he said, his tone light and cheery as he stood up. He summoned his broom and motioned for Hermione to stand up. "Get on," he told her.

Hermione sighed and left her school bag where it was, knowing that Fred would probably bring her right back here after he had had his fill of forcing her to ride around with him. "Okay," she said, and was dismayed with the two syllables came out shaky and frightened.

Fred had her sit in front of him, both legs hanging over one side of the broom. "I would never let you fall," he said right in her ear. Hermione nodded and was surprised once again to find that she trusted Fred completely all of the sudden. Perhaps in playing his little game, she had understood his affection for her. "Put your arms around my neck," he instructed her, smiling when she did so after only a moment's hesitation.

Fred pushed off from the ground, gently angling the broom upward instead of the sharp ascents he was used to. He didn't want to scare Hermione more than necessary. After a few moments, he leveled the broom out leaned forward slightly, watching Hermione's reaction more than where he was going. "You alright?" he asked her, noticing that her face was turned away from him.

Hermione nodded and actually smiled up at Fred. "I'm okay," she told him. They rode like that for almost half an hour before Fred spoke again.

"I want to show you something," Fred told her slowly, worried that he might scare her unnecessarily. "But it might frighten you. You have to really trust me to do this." He paused, realizing how that had come out, and added, "And it's completely fine if you don't trust me enough yet."

Hermione's flickered to meet his for a few moments, and Fred held his breath. Surprisingly, Hermione nodded. "Because you gave me the choice," she told him, "I trust you."

Fred's smile was wider than it had ever been as he angled the broom high into the sky for almost a minute. "Ready?" he asked her, throwing aside his don't-scare-her-more-than-necessary philosophy at that moment.

"Yes," Hermione whispered.

Fred leaned in so that his lips brushed her ear and he whispered, "This is what you do to me. This is what it feels like every time I'm around you."

He locked an arm around Hermione's waist, making sure that he had a tight hold on her, and then he tipped his broom and let it rocket down to earth.

Fred was surprised that Hermione didn't scream. Her arms locked tightly around his neck, but she stubbornly refused to close her eyes. Instead, her gaze locked with Fred's as the broom plummeted down to the ground below. The weightless, butterflies-in-your-stomach feeling of falling was what Fred had been trying to convey, and by the look in Hermione's eyes as she gazed at him, she understood.

With conscious effort against the force of gravity, Hermione pulled herself up closer to Fred and boldly brought her lips inches from his. It was up to him to decide whether or not to close the distance, which he did almost immediately.

The force from the kiss and the broom ride was enough to draw them both into a world void of any actual shapes or sounds. It was all feelings, wild, vivaciously alive feelings. The arm that held Hermione tightened even more as Fred dragged her closer. Her hands wound through his hair, gently pulling at the ends every now and then.

Before their embrace could send them to their death, Fred pulled up on his broom and leveled them out, landing gently on the ground before gravity took hold and threw him and Hermione forward onto the soft grass. "Oof!" they both exclaimed as they landed, surprised but unharmed.

As they lay next to each other with the sun beginning to set behind them, their breathing slowly coming back to normal, Hermione pushed her hair out of her face and gasped, "I can see why you like flying so much."

* * *

Hermione was reading a novel as she sat curled up in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room when a kiss on her ear startled her completely. "Ah!" she cried, causing the kisser to laugh. "Fred!" she scolded, but her scolding ended in a cough since she was trying to get over a cold.

Her boyfriend of four months laughed, covering up his concern for her, and climbed over the couch to sit next to her. "Couldn't resist," he told her with a smirk. "I haven't been able to kiss your for a month since you've had that cold."

Hermione just smiled back at him. She really didn't mind anything he did because she had grown to love him so much. That old saying: Love is blind, was _so_ true. "Can we do something tonight?" she asked him eagerly. "I'm bored of being stuck in here."

Fred hesitated for a moment and then said, "Not tonight, Mione. I have something that I need to do, and I don't want to take you out when you're not feeling well." He saw her crestfallen look and lifted her chin with his hand. "I promise to make it up to you. I'll take you out wherever you want to go when you feel better, okay?"

Hermione turned away as a cough tore from her throat and Fred patted her back softly until the coughing fit was over. "Okay," she croaked, her voice raspy after coughing.

Fred leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on Hermione's forehead, trying to ignore the fact that she was burning up with a fever. "See you later," he told her.

"Bye," she responded, and then he tucked her back into her blankets and walked out of the common room. Hermione stared at the fire for a few minutes, and then she slowly fell asleep, not realizing that the greatest test she would ever go through was coming soon.

* * *

"Hermione!" The shriek jerked Hermione out of her sleep and she sat up quickly, focusing blurry eyes on a distraught Ginny.

"What?" Hermione asked her friend. "What's wrong?"

"Fred's gone missing!" the redhead exclaimed, wringing her hands together. Ron and Harry stood next to her, looking just as worried, and Hermione felt like someone had poured rocks into her stomach. She'd never even gotten a chance to tell him that she loved him.

"Where was he going?" Hermione asked, taking charge unconsciously.

Ginny sniffled. "We don't know! He wouldn't tell us!"

A pounding on the stairs made everyone look up. There stood George with a book in his hand. "I know where he went," he told them. He pointed to the page and said, "He's gone into the Forbidden Forest."

"What!" three voices exclaimed. Hermione stayed silent, struggling not to jump off the couch right then and there. She needed more information.

"It says here that there's a plant that only grows in the Forbidden Forest that helps the kind of cold Hermione has." George nodded to Hermione and said, "That's where he's gone."

Before anyone could say anything more, Hermione had thrown off the blankets, the very ones that Fred had tucked her into, and flew out of the common room, ignoring her cough and her fever completely. "Hermione, no!" someone called after her, but it was lost to her as she pounded down the revolving staircases, thankful that she didn't have to wait for any to turn, and ran towards the entrance of Hogwarts.

As soon as she burst outside, Hermione recoiled. The weather was terrible for November, with the wind whipping dangerously and rain pouring down in never ending sheets. After only a few seconds, Hermione was soaked. She shivered, and the action brought a thought to the front of her mind. _"Fred's out there in this!"_

Ducking her head, Hermione charged down the path to Hagrid's house and veered into the Forbidden Forest, not knowing where she should look first. Her wand was safely tucked away in her nightstand, so that would be no help to her. She would just have to start searching without light.

Not even the large trees of the Forbidden Forest could keep out the driving, whipping rain as Hermione scoured the forest. She stumbled, cutting her knee on a rock, and bit her lip to keep from crying out. _"Ignore the pain,"_ she ordered herself, and it was only when she wiped some of the blood off of her knee that she noticed a piece of wood on the ground that did not belong. Peering down at it, she traced the smooth wood and stood up quickly.

Her head whipped around in all directions, searching, searching, there! She saw it! Lying thirty feet away from her and nearly obscured from sight due to the rain, was Fred's broomstick. Hermione ran to the broomstick and found Fred's body lying not far from it. "Fred!" she called, desperately shaking him. His face was streaked with dirt and blood and was very pale and cold, but when Hermione checked for a pulse, she found a very faint one.

"We've got to get you to Madam Pomfrey," she said to him. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, giving her enough strength to pull Fred over to his broom. She knew that she could never carry him back, plus she couldn't remember the way since she had turned around so many times. The broom looked relatively unscathed, except for that small piece that had broken off, so Hermione made her choice.

With determined steps, she crossed to the broom and placed her hand over it. "Up!" she commanded, feeling like she was back in first year all over again. The broom, like in first year, didn't move. Hermione narrowed her eyes and growled. "Up! Up! You stupid broom! UP!" The broom flew into her hand, smacking her palm painfully. Apparently, it didn't take kindly to being called stupid.

Hermione hauled Fred onto the broom, leaning him against her chest. The whole setup was awkward because gravity kept pulling Fred's body to the ground, but Hermione finally managed to get him steady. Like he had done four months ago, she wrapped one arm around his waist and gripped the broom handle with the other. "I can do this," she said aloud, though the rain tore most of the audible sound away from her.

She pushed off the ground, and for a moment, thought that the broom was going to dump her and Fred right back into the ground. It tipped forward sharply, and Hermione sat back, pulling Fred with her until the broom leveled out once again. Very slowly, she steered the broom through the trees, climbing higher whenever she could, and telling herself not to look down. A broken branch told her that Fred must have tried to fly out the forest and had run into a tree, causing his fall.

Whether it was hours or minutes before the trees ended, Hermione didn't know. All she knew was that when she finally flew to the top of the trees, she saw Harry, Ron, George, Ginny, and Madam Pomfrey all standing into the rain (with a shielding spell cast around them, of course). When they saw her, they cheered and waved wildly.

Hermione was so exhausted when she landed that George caught her in his arms and lifted her up as Madam Pomfrey levitated Fred to the Hospital Wing. Now that it was over, Hermione was shivering and shaking so violently that George cast two warming spells over her. "It's over," he whispered in her ear. "You're alright."

However, Hermione didn't start feeling alright until she was tucked under charmed covers, most of her cuts and bruises having been healed, and her bed pushed up next to Fred's. Her hand was twined with his, and she was watching him intently, waiting for him to wake up. Fred had retrieved the plant for Hermione before he was injured, so Madam Pomfrey made her a large cup of tea and told her to drink it.

Obediently, Hermione drank, one hand still holding Fred's. She had saved him. She had flown, for him! She loved him.

"I can't believe you flew, Mione," George said softly. The others had left, but he was still there, waiting for his brother to wake up. "That's brilliant."

Hermione smiled and pushed a lock of Fred's hair out of his face. "I love him, George," she told him softly. "I think I'd do anything for him."

George smiled and sat back in his chair. "I know," he said, and no more words were exchanged. None were needed.

* * *

Fred stirred a few hours later, unsure of where he was. He turned his head from one side to the other and found his brother sleeping in an uncomfortable-looking chair and his girlfriend sleeping in the bed next to him, her hand twined with his. "Hermione?" he said softly, his voice sounding alien to him.

Hermione's eyes shot open and she sat up quickly. "Fred!"

George awoke at the noise and he grinned at his brother. "'Bout time," he told Fred. "We've been waiting for hours!"

Fred ran a hand over his face and yawned. "What happened?" he asked groggily. "Where am I?"

"Hospital Wing," George supplied, since Hermione was too busy snuggling against Fred's side. "You hit a branch and fell. Hermione found you, and mate, she flew!"

Fred turned and glanced at Hermione, surprised. "What?" he asked. In response, she buried her head in his side, too embarrassed to speak.

"Hermione flew you out of the forest," George told him cheerfully. "She was brilliant!"

"And scared out of my mind," Hermione muttered, covering a cough. Madam Pomfrey had warned her that she might become sicker after what she had done, despite the plant Fred had retrieved, but it would only last a little while. She had told the mediwitch, however, that anything that happened to her had been worth saving Fred.

Fred turned to look at her, and George quickly slipped out of the room, grinning madly as he left them. He had a feeling that Fred was about to say something that only Hermione should hear right now. Sure enough, as soon as his brother was gone, Fred asked softly, "Why did you do it?"

Hermione stared up at him for a moment and said simply, "Because I care about you. All I could think of when everyone said you were gone was, 'I never told Fred that I loved him.'"

Fred gently pulled her closer, his arms circling her waist possessively, and tilted her chin up so that her eyes met his. "I love you too. Why else would I go into the Forbidden Forest?" He saw that Hermione was going to answer, probably to tell him that he was stupid and impulsive, so he placed a finger across her parting lips. "Don't answer that. It was rhetorical."

Hermione smiled. "Okay," she said quietly. "How about you kiss me instead?"

Fred grinned back at her. "I can do that," he said, kissing her softly, his hands twining into her hair. When he pulled away, he grinned and slid his knuckles lovingly over her cheek. "I'm so glad I taught you to fly."

**A/N: Well? I hope you liked it! Please review! :D It makes my day! ;)**


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